


You sound cute, I'm in love

by Madiii



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, Dialogue Heavy, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Mutual Pining, Online Dating, Online Friendship, Online Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-12
Updated: 2019-08-18
Packaged: 2020-01-12 05:23:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 8,327
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18439910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Madiii/pseuds/Madiii
Summary: Bruce, Thor, Bucky, Steve and Tony have been online friends for a while. After they moved to a Discord server everybody is constantly in the voice chats and talks.Well everybody except Bruce, he has never said a single thing to his friends.





	1. 1

**Author's Note:**

> I know that you can't write in Discord voice channels, but let's just pretend you can for the sake of this fic.

Bruce has only known Steve, Bucky, Tony and Thor for about 5 months but they were becoming his best friends really quickly.

They had met on Twitter, in a group chat, originally. They all followed Steve and when he one day asked if someone was up for a group chat, they all said they were. After a few weeks Steve asked if they would be up for exchanging numbers because it was easier than a twitter group chat. 

But Bruce didn’t want to give his number out to strangers, which they were back then, and Tony said he hated phone calls. So Steve made a Discord server for them to talk and write.

They all got along really well so far, even if Tony is an asshole sometimes, they love him anyway. They were like a family, even though Bruce has never talked to them.

They are almost everyday in the voice chat of their Discord server, sometimes one of them isn’t there, but most of the time they’re there. And even though they have known each other for about five months now, and knew each other well, Bruce was to scared to talk to them. 

So he joined them in the voice chat but muted himself immediately, and didn’t speak. He just wrote his opinion on the current topic sometimes. But most of the time he just listened to them arguing and talking, it helped him relax from his day. 

Everytime Bruce joins the voice chat Thor, Tony and Bucky suddenly interrupted their current conversation, no matter about what it is, and begin to shout, “Unmute! Unmute! Unmute!”, knowing it won’t work. It was just kind of an inside joke now and Bruce found it quite funny to be honest, because they all would get scolded by Steve after shouting it.

Steve was the mom friend of their group and always concerned about everyone. He was always asking if Tony would sleep enough, because he seemed to be on the Discord 24/7, always asking Thor if everything was okay at home with his brother and asked if he wanted to talk about it and always asking how Buckys mental health was that day and if he could do anything to help. Most of the time Bucky would just reply that he’s fine but that he wants cuddles anyway and shortly after that Steve would leave the Discord only to be heard through Buckys microphone shortly after. 

That happened most of the time though, Steve and Bucky being in the same room and talking through one microphone, since they actually lived together, but that’s a story for another day.

Steve, the mom friend, would also always defend Bruce when the others shouted “Unmute!”. And he always, without fail, said, “Guys, shut up. Bruce you don’t have to talk, you know we are friends no matter what and love you.”.

And everytime Bruce would write “I know Steve. I love you all too, someday I’ll talk to you, but today is just not the day.”. After that they all would just go back to the theme from before, without pressuring Bruce and asking when someday will be.

All is normal for a few days, until that fateful day, when Tony, Thor and Bucky are screaming at Bruce to unmute again and Steve is defending him again. But this time Bruce doesn’t react like always.

Instead he writes, “You know what? I’m gonna talk to you all today, I’m gonna do it because I love you all and you’re my best friends.”

To which all expect Steve freaked out, that Bruce would finally talk. But Steve, as always, was worried for his friends, in this case Bruce.

“Bruce, you know you don’t have to talk, don’t do anything you don’t feel comfortable with. Please don’t feel pressured to talk to us, writing is fine too if you would feel more comfortable.”

To which Bruce just wrote, “It’s fine, Steve, it really is.”, and then he unmuted himself.

The voice chat hat gone dead silent, you could probably hear a needle falling, that’s how quiet it was. 

It stayed quiet for a bit everybody waiting for Bruce to talk, until Steve took over again.

“Bruce? It’s fine if you decided against talking. You can mute yourself again if you want, we won’t be mad, promise.”

Bruce thought about it for a second, just muting himself again and trying again another day, but no, he didn’t want that. These were his best friends, he loved them and trusted them with his life. He wants to finally talk to them.

So he gathers all his courage and says, “I-it’s okay, Steve, I’m just nervous, anyways-”

He wanted to say more, to say hello to them properly, to say how happy he was that he finally got the courage to speak to them, but he got interrupted by the others screaming his name.

They all talked over each other and got louder and louder, almost drowning out Thor. But only almost, they all still heard him say, “Oh shit, you sound cute, I think I’m in love.”

After that there was silence again, until Tony awkwardly said, “Guys, I have to go now, I, uhm, forgot that I have to finish this project today. Bye!”, and left the Discord suddenly.

Immediately after that, Bucky and Steve made a shitty excuse up, and also left the server.

That left Bruce and Thor all alone on the server, in complete silence.

“Uhm, Thor? Are you still there? You know, you don’t have to be embarrassed about what you said. We can pretend like it never happened if you want to.”

“It’s fine Bruce, avoiding it and pretending like it never happened wouldn’t work anyway. You know how the others are, they wouldn't leave it alone. I said, what I said and there’s nothing we can do about it now. Let’s leave it at that. Now if you don’t want to say anything else, I’m gonna go now too.”

Bruce didn’t say a thing, he was too overwhelmed with the situation, so Thor left the discord.

He was now completely alone on the server and just realised what had actually happened. He realised he might have just lost Thor, one of his best friends in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My [tumblr](www.fandom-wonderland.tumblr.com) and my [twitter](https://twitter.com/bvchananbarness?s=09) or buy me a coffee on [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/madita)


	2. 2

The next day when Bruce joined the server he saw that Steve, Tony and Thor were in the voice channel. And Bucky was probably there, just in the same room as Steve.

As soon as Bruce joined the channel though, Thor left the discord. In the middle of the conversation he had, without saying bye.

Bruce felt the immense guilt. He wanted to fix this, but he didn’t know how to do it. He wanted to tell Thor that he felt the same as him, but he was scared. He didn’t know how to act around him, hell until yesterday he had never even spoken to him, how was he supposed to say that he liked him? 

“-Bruce?”, Tony asked confused.

“Y-Yeah, I’m here, and talking. I was just lost in thoughts.”

“So what happened yesterday? Thor wouldn’t tell us anything. But since he just left as soon as you joined I’m gonna assume it didn’t end good-”, as soon as Bucky said that he got interrupted by a scolding Steve.

“Bucky, I love you but please shut the fuck up, you’re not making this situation better. Also Tony I’m gonna say this before you even have a chance to say anything, that includes you too, don’t say anything about this situation. They are gonna tell us when they want and until then we ignore this and continue on like before. Understand?”

“Yes, Mom”, Tony answered.

“Only because you would literally punch me in the face if I say anything else about it.”

“You know I would punch Tony too, if I could.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“What- hey, why do you wanna punch me?”

“Tony sometimes you’re really ignorant and people wanna punch you for it.”, Bruce answered for Steve.

“Honestly I would be surprised if there’s a person out there that knows you and doesn’t wanna punch you.”, Bucky said.

“Okay guys, that’s enough. Tony I hope you know this is all in good fun.”, Steve, tried to calm them down.

“Yeah, yeah I know. But just so you know there’s a person out there that knows me, and doesn’t wanna slap me. He would actually punch anybody that tried to punch me before they would even get the chance to.”

“You hear that Stevie, you got competition. You gonna get slapped when you try to slap Tony.”, Bucky teased him.

“I guess I’m not punching Tony then. But I’m curious now, who’s that person that’s gonna slap me if I try to slap you?”

“Uhmm, he’s a really got friend of mine, Rhodey, known him for like ten years now. Was my only friend in college, and protected me from the older kids. Without him I would have been completely lost and the other kids would have eaten me alive. Honestly I don’t know where I would be without him, probably not even here. Like you know these friends that support you unconditionally through everything you do, even if you do the dumbest things they are right there beside you and do it with you? Just because they don’t want you to be all alone, they want you to have somebody. He’s one of them, and like I’m so happy I have him.”

“That sounds like he’s your Steve. Like you just described what Steve is to me. He sounds really important to you, and I’m happy you have someone like him. I think I can speak for all of us here on that.”

“Yeah, you deserve to have somebody like him. You deserve to have someone that loves you, especially after all you’ve gone through.”, Bruce said, he wishes he had someone like this too, he knew he had them, but he wanted to have someone in his real life, someone who could come over in the middle of the night, someone who wasn’t just online.

“Hey you know how I told you that I ran away from home in my first spring break in college?”

“Uhm, yeah you told us that you couldn’t handle it at your home anymore, because your dad is shit and that you lived with a friend when you weren't at college in a dorm. But why are you bringing this up?”, now even Steve was curious as to what Tony had to say.

“Because it fits into the story now, Rhodey was the person that helped me realise just how shitty my dad is and that I couldn’t keep living with him and helped me run away. He’s also the one that took me in and yeah. Basically whenever I told you about somebody just assume it was Rhodey, I have no friends other than him and you guys.”

“Okay so when you told us that you might have a crush on your friend, that was about Rhodey too?”, Bucky said curiously.

“Don’t expose me like that!”

This all felt to much for Bruce, the guys talking about Tonys crush and supporting him, Tony actually considering telling Rhodey about it.

He still regretted not talking to Thor, he wanted to talk to him so badly but apparently Thor was done with him. Thor didn’t wanna talk to him, he didn’t even wanna be in the same voice channel as Bruce earlier.

This was all to much for Bruce he had to leave the discord now, he had to leave and calm down. And think about what to do about Thor, how would he get Thor to talk to him again? 

It hasn’t even been a full day and he misses Thor and wants him back. 

Why hadn’t he admitted his crush on him when he had the chance to do it? 

“Guys, I’m sorry but I have to leave already.”

And he left without waiting for any of their answers, he just wanted to be left alone at that moment.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My [tumblr](www.fandom-wonderland.tumblr.com) and my [twitter](https://twitter.com/bvchananbarness?s=09) or buy me a coffee on [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/madita)


	3. 3

After Bruce left the Discord he just sat motionless in front of his computer.

Discord window was still open on his computer, he was just out of the server, so he could see all the notifications he was getting.

Some were mentions in from the server and some were private messages. Most of them were from probably from Steve.

Bruce really wanted to answer, to give them a reason for leaving so suddenly, he really just wanted to talk, but he couldn’t.

He didn’t know why he couldn’t so it, he just couldn’t. 

He just continued to sit in front of his computer, looking straight at it, seeing more and more notifications popping up.

After a while he fell asleep, still in front of his computer, he just couldn’t get himself to move to his bed.

He woke up in the morning with a sore neck and a bad mood.

One look at his computer showed that it was in fact not in the morning as he thought, it was currently the middle of the night. Thank god he didn’t have to go to work that day.

It also showed that he had even more Discord notifications. Apparently they were really worried and didn’t stop, even when Bruce didn’t react to any of them.

He thought of reacting to them, of even maybe rejoining the voice channel, apparently Tony and Bucky were still there. But after a moment he decided to just turn off his computer and actually going to bed.

The last part didn’t exactly work out how he wanted to though. He was in bed, but he couldn’t fall asleep.

He kept tossing and turning and thinking about Thor, until he decided that trying to sleep wouldn’t work. 

So he got up again, turned the lamp on his bedside table on and started to make his way into the kitchen.

Bruce hoped that some tea could help him actually fall asleep, but as he waited for the water to boil he began thinking about Thor again.

He didn’t wanna lose Thor, he wanted to tell Thor how he felt. He wanted to tell him that he was just overwhelmed that moment. That he didn’t react to him because he was in shock. 

He just couldn’t believe that someone actually liked him like that. But then again Thor didn’t know what Bruce looked like, if he would know Thor probably would have never started to like him.

He kept think about Thor and what he could do, and how to explain his situation when he was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts by the kettle beeping.

After making his tea he went in the living room, and just sat on the couch. He didn’t turn on the light or anything else, he just sat there in the dark drinking his tea.

While he was sipping his tea, he continued to think about his current situation. If he would continue on like this he would eventually lose everyone, he couldn’t keep pushing them away from him. After all they just want to help him. 

But did he really want to talk to them all and confess that he’s an asshole who couldn’t say how he felt when it mattered? No, not really, at least not to all of them.

He knew he had to talk to someone, but he had nobody in his real life that he trusted much. Hell he wasn’t even out to most of the people he interacted with on a daily basis in his real life. So probably not a good idea to talk to someone in his real life.

So that left Tony, Bucky and Steve to talk to, and while he knew he could speak to all of them and that they would all care and help him, he didn’t really want to talk to Tony or Bucky about this right now. Steve just seemed like the best option, Steve was always calm and collected and gives good advice. He would understand Bruce situation and try to help him as good as he can.

He intended to speak to Steve as soon as possible, so after he finished his tea and was back in his bedroom, he opened the Discord app on his phone.

He tapped on the private conversation with Steve, and before he wrote something he looked at all the messages Steve had wrote when Bruce suddenly left the voice channel earlier.

 **Steve**  
hey, what happened? is everything ok?

 **Steve**  
bruce?

 **Steve**  
we’re worried bruce

 **Steve**  
did something bad happened with thor? is that why you left?

 **Steve**  
i want you to know that what ever happened it’s not the end of the world

 **Steve**  
you and thor are gonna be fine

 **Steve**  
i’m sure you will be 

**Steve**  
we won’t let you and thor ignore each other forever

 **Steve**  
you are to important to each other for that

 **Steve**  
ok, you’re obviously not answering any of us, just know we are worried and we all love you no matter what

 **Steve**  
it’s fine if you don’t wanna tell us what happened btw, it’s none of our business

 **Steve**  
if you do wanna talk about it tho, i’m here

Bruce felt really bad for ignoring the messages earlier but Steve didn’t seem to be mad at all, just worried.

And before he could think about it again Bruce send a message to Steve.

 **Bruce**  
hey, sorry for not answering earlier, i just need to get out, you guys did nothing wrong, it was completely my fault

 **Bruce**  
also i’d like to take you up on that offer to talk, i need to talk to someone about this

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My [tumblr](www.fandom-wonderland.tumblr.com) and my [twitter](https://twitter.com/bvchananbarness?s=09) or buy me a coffee on [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/madita)


	4. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter would have been out way sooner, but then endgame happned and just destroyed me, so I couldn't finish this chaper without thinking about it and crying.  
>  ~~It has been a while since I watched it but I'm still crying when I think about it, which is basically all the time~~

Surprisingly Bruce got an answer back pretty soon, even though it was in the middle of the night.

 **Steve**  
bruce! i’m so glad you’re okay, i was so worried. i’m sure it wasn’t completely your fault though, i’m sure you had your reason to leave.

 **Bruce**  
trust me, it was completely my fault, once i’ll tell you you’ll agree. are you maybe free to talk right now, even though it’s this late? i need to get this all out somehow

 **Steve**  
yes, of course! you know i’m free to talk whenever, i’m always here to help

 **Bruce**  
thank you so much steve, really. i’ll start the call then

“Hey, again I’m sorry for just leaving like that earlier, I just had to leave that situation, and I’m sor-”

“Bruce! Please stop apologizing, I’m not mad and neither are Tony and Bucky, we were just worried for you and maybe overreacted and spammed you. If someone should apologize it’s us for not giving you space when you clearly wanted it and didn’t answer.”

“You shouldn’t apologize either. It’s my fault I left, it really is. I just couldn’t stand the topic of crushes and facing them, so I left without really thinking about it.”

“Hey, don’t worry everybody make irrational decisions sometimes. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that you left because of your situation with Thor?”

“Yeah, kind of. Okay, not just kind of, but Thor is the reason yes. But I don’t really know how to explain this? Like I don’t know where to start and it’s all just this huge mess.”, Bruce tried to explain, but he just worked himself up even more and began to panic.

“Bruce, hey, calm down, take deep breaths. Can you do that for me please?”

After a while without talking and just the sounds of deep breaths being taken Bruce spoke again, this time calmer, “Okay so, should I just tell you this whole thing? But it’s probably gonna be long.”

“Hey, I don’t care how long this is gonna be, the important thing is that you feel better at the end of this and that I can help you however I can.”

“So from the beginning, when we first met all was well, you guys were, and still are, my only friends, you know that, and as soon as we moved to the Discord and you guys started talking, I got scared. 

Not just of speaking to you, that was a whole other thing, but of losing you all somehow. 

You guys just got so important to me over that period of time that I never wanted to lose you again. 

And everyday when you guys talked I thought more and more about it, about losing you guys if I did something wrong so when I began crushing on Thor I kept quiet. 

I was scared that when I tell him, he’ll abandon me and tell you guys so you would abandon me too. I now realise that that thought was complete bullshit, but at the moment I was just so scared of losing you that I didn’t say anything. 

So flash forward to when Thor confessed his crush on me, after you all left it got awkward pretty fast. I told him that we could forget about it if he wants, but he told me it wouldn’t matter if we agreed to forget it. He said it would come up anyway, sooner or later. I was in shock at his confession, and after he said that he’s gonna leave the server if I have nothing else to say, I still couldn’t say anything. 

Not even a word, I was just silent and I regret it so much now, I just wanna talk to him, but I don’t know how to approach this and how to tell him I feel the same. 

If he even still feels like this, maybe I’ve been such a huge asshole to him that his crush is now gone. Not that it would matter in the long run anyway, once he sees how I looks he sure as hell won’t have a crush on me anym-”, Bruce rambled the whole story.

“Don’t you fucking dare to continue to speak like that about yourself. Bruce I’m sure you’re beautiful and your looks won’t have anything to do with this whole thing, I’m sure Thor is gonna love you even if he knows how you look. Now on to the main problem, so you have a crush on him and he on you, but you were in shock so you didn’t say anything, right?”

“Yeah, right.”

“Okay so, the way I see it you two just need to talk it out, and I know how. Thor is just hurt at the moment, he thinks you don’t like him like that, so he’s distancing himself to get over you. We just have to convince him to talk to you, he still cares about you, I’m sure, so if tell him that you just wanna talk about the other night, we might get him to stay when you come online.”

“You really think this would work? Thor is fucking stubborn.”

“Yeah I know, but so am I. I’m not gonna stop until he agrees to talk to you.”

“Thank you so much Steve, really.”

“That’s what friends-”, Steve yawned, “are for.”

“One last thing, before I let you go back to bed. Please don’t tell Bucky and Tony about this whole story? I’m gonna tell them eventually I just wanna talk to Thor first.”

“Yeah, sure, I won’t tell them. Goodnight, Bruce”

“Thank you, and goodnight.”

And with that they ended their call.

Talking to somebody, talking to Steve had been a good idea, Bruce felt so much better already.

He had hope again, hope that everything would be fine again. Hope that he indeed could still fix this situation with Thor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come cry with me over endgame on my [tumblr](https://fandom-wonderland.tumblr.com) or my [twitter](https://twitter.com/bvchananbarness?s=09), or buy me a coffee on [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/madita)


	5. 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, I'm back!
> 
> I'm sorry this took me so long but I had a writers block and had to concentrate on my finals. But I'm done with them now and graduated so hopefully I'll be able to write more now!

Over the course of the next few days Bruce still heard nothing from Thor.

Steve still continued to convince Thor to talk to him, but as predicted Thor continued to be stubborn.

Just has he was beginning to give up hope again he saw a message from Steve.

 **Steve**  
good news! i finally convinced thor, ~~bucky threatened him~~ , to talk to you! he said the next time you both are online he’ll talk to you alone.

 **Bruce**  
really? thank you so much steve, you really saved me here

 **Steve**  
no need to thank me, i just did what was right. i hope you and thor can figure things out.

The next time Bruce went on the server he saw that Thor was in the voice channel with Tony.

As soon as Bruce joined the voice channel, Tony left, “to give them some privacy”, he said.

“Ok, first things first, I’m so fucking sorry for not saying anything last time. I really am, I was just in shock at that moment and realised to late that I should answer you. I really hope we can fix this, I really do, I don’t wanna lose you.”, Bruce began.

“Hey it’s alright now. I mean when it happened it was not, I was really sad and kind of angry at you, but I thought about the situation more and understood your side more. And also Steve and by extension Bucky, would not let me live in peace and told me every chance they got that you just want to talk to me. So here I am.”

“I just-, this whole situation is just a mess and full of miscommunication. The thing is I have a crush on you too”, he could hear Thor gasp at that, “It’s just when you said that you have a crush on me I was shocked that someone would like me. So I didn’t say anything, and I regret it so fucking much. I wish I would have just said something, anything, then we wouldn’t be in this situation. I just hate how it all played out.”, Bruce confessed nervously.

“Bruce it’s alright, it really is. Yes it would have saved us trouble if you said something then, but that doesn’t matter now, the important thing is that we’re talking now and are clearing it all up. So it’s all good.”, Thor comforted Bruce.

"Are you sure? Because I would totally understand it if you are still angry or mad at me and need some time.", Bruce said unsurely.

"Hey, Bruce, please listen to me. It's all good now, I promise. I'm not angry or mad at you, I'm just glad that we talked now and cleared up the misunderstanding.", Thor said softly, to comfort Bruce again.

"Ok, ok, I believe you, but one question. What do we do now? Like what are we? We both have crushes on each other but what now?"

"Hmm, good question. I would say that we take it slow? Because we obviously know a lot about each other but like we don't know if we would work outside of the discord if that makes sense? So like let's not go into this head over heels and be boyfriends immediately? If that's fine with you of course." 

"Yeah, no, you are completely right, but maybe we could exchange phone numbers to go out of the discord a bit? Like that way we could text and call without having to use discord?"

"That's actually a really good idea. I would love to. Maybe we can even facetime some day?", Thor asked.

"Someday maybe, but if I'm being honest here at the moment I'm not really comfortable with it, I hope you understand that.", Bruce said hopefully.

"Of course I understand Bruce, no pressure. You don't have to do anything you don't want to do.", Thor said reassuringly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My [tumblr](www.fandom-wonderland.tumblr.com) and my [twitter](https://twitter.com/bvchananbarness?s=09) or buy me a coffee on [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/madita)


	6. 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...hello, I'm late yet again but I'm coming back with the longest chapter yet!
> 
> Also I definitly plan on finishing this, I won't abandon this, so don't worry!

They continue to talk for while without any of the others interrupting them, that is until Bruce sees Steve send him a message.

**Steve**  
hey, i just wanted to ask how your talk went? i hope everything is well!

**Bruce**  
hey! everything is fine! more than fine even. we talked about everything and it was just a huge misunderstanding, but we fixed it.

**Bruce**  
also you guys can come back into the channel, if you want to

The moment Steve, Bucky and Tony enter the channel again, Bucky and Tony begin to ask thousands of questions, without actually stopping to let either Thor or Bruce answer.

“Hey! Guys! Let’s stop with all the questions and let Bruce and Thor speak about it when they’re ready and they want to. In the end it doesn’t matter what happened between them, the only thing that really matter is that everything is okay now.”, Steve interrupted them once again, because apparently they would never stop being nosey.

“It’s okay Steve, we talked about exactly this earlier and decided to tell you all what actually happened, because we know Bucky and Tony won’t stop otherwise but also because we are like a family here and we just wanna tell you.”, Thor explains what he and Bruce had agreed on, tell them, but spare the details.

“Really you’re gonna tell us? I can’t believe the day has finally come.”

“Tony, I swear if you don’t shut the fuck up now I’ll be the one that tries to punch you.”, Bucky really tried to sound threatening, but his yawn kind of destroyed it in the end.

“Ok, ok, I’ll be quiet.”

“Ok- uhm, where do I begin. I’ll just say this now before I start, this is mostly my fault, bec-”, Bruce tried to start, but was quickly interrupted by Thor.

“Bruce, no, this isn’t just your fault. We’re both at fault here. So, uhm, basically nothing really happened the after the first time Bruce spoke and you all left us alone.”

“What do you mean nothing happened? If nothing happened you would have talked to each other still.”, yawned Bucky, clearly he should be in bed and not still on here.

“Nothing happened as in I was to in shock to say something which Thor took as a bad thing, which is understandable, and then left. So he thought I rejected him and wanted some distance, which is also understandable. He only talked to me after Steve convinced him to talk to me again, so I could explain.”

“Hey! Technically I was the one who got Thor to talk to you.”, and suddenly Bucky was wide awake again, and ready to correct anybody and everything.

“Yeah, but babe you didn’t know the exact reason why I wanted Thor to talk to Bruce again, you just went with it because of me.”, Steve tried to argue, but deep down he knew it was to no avail.

“You also said that you would call me nothing but Thot if I wouldn’t talk to Bruce again.”

“Wait, wait, wait, that’s the fucking threat Steve told me about?”, Bruce laughed. You had to leave it to Bucky to come up with the weirdest threats.

“Yeah, I wanted to talk to you again anyway and would have said yes the next time Steve would have asked, but that just made me wanna talk to you even more. I just can’t live with being called Thot for forever.”

“Why not, it would have been funny. Petition to call him Thot anyway!”, Tony said amused.

“Agreed.”, Bucky exclaimed.

“Agreed if we don’t overuse it.”, Steve sighs, knowing it will happen whether he agrees or not.

“Sorry, but I also agree.”, Bruce said, trying really hard to sound sorry, but failing spectacularly.

“Guys, come on, are you for real right now?”

“Yes, now do you want to continue your story, Thot?”, Tony wheezed, barely understandable.

“There’s not much more to tell though. We talked, realised that it was a misunderstanding and then agreed that while we may have crushes on eachother we’re not really gonna pursue them yet, just because we don’t know if we even would work outside of the Discord. Also we exchanged phone numbers to see if we’re gonna work outside of this. So no big deal.”, Thor tried to make it seem as insignificant as possible, just as he Bruce had agreed on. The others didn’t need to know everything right now, they wanted to keep a bit to themselves. 

“No big deal? Are you fucking kidding me.”, asked Tony, clearly seeing right through Thor. Thank god for Bruce, who saved Thor from answering again.

“It really isn’t a big deal, Tony. We agreed that we should see if we could work in other settings before becoming boyfriends and that’s it, nothing has really changed except that Thor now has my phone number.”

“I’m just happy that everything is okay between you again, that we all can talk together again and not just with one of you.”, Steve said sincerely, and honestly, Bruce had to agree he had missed them all talking together. 

“Me too.” agreed Thor, still feeling a bit guilty about ignoring Bruce.

“So… did anything interesting happen in the last few days?”, asked Bruce awkwardly, clearly just trying to change the subject in the hope somebody would just take the bait.

“I know you’re just trying to change the subject an distract from yourself but actually, yes something did happen.” Tony answered, seeing right through Bruce, but going along with it anyway, he may be nosey but he also knows when to stop.

“Care to elaborate on that?”, apparently Bucky did not know when to stop being nosey.

“Damn did nobody ever teach you to be patient, Barnes?”, he paused for a second waiting for an answer, then quickly decides otherwise, “Wait, no actually don't answer that, I honestly just want to tell you what happened because I actually need advice from you.” 

“You? Actually asking for advice and not just trying to figure it out yourself? Who are you and what have you done with Tony?”, Thor jokes, normally Tony wouldn’t ask for advice, always with the excuse of not wanting to be a burden to them.

“Haha, really funny. Anyway I met up with Rhodey the other day to catch up and watch a movie, because we actually haven’t seen eachother in a while because of his job. And as we were watching the movie I got more and more tired because it felt like I was finally able to relax and calm down.”, he took a deep breath, before continuing, “And my head kinda dropped on his shoulder and apparently I was out for a bit because the next time I opened my eyes, Rhodey had his arm around me and he had his head leaned against mine. I didn’t know what to do so I just kinda got closer to him and fell asleep again. But then the next morning when I woke he was gone, but I was under a blanket and he wrote a note and left it on the table. Now I don’t know what to do and how to feel. Like does he feel the same, does he just see me as a friend? What the fuck do I do now?”, Tony rambled on, he seemed to have thought about it for a while already.

“Okay, okay Tony please calm down, can you do that for me please?”, Steve said calmly, the last thing Tony needed now was an anxiety attack.

It takes a while, in which it’s completely silent in the channel, except for all of them breathing, then Tony speaks up again, “Ok, yeah, it’s ok now, I calmed down a bit, thanks guys.”

“That’s good, so about your thing with Rhodey…, what did he write on the note? If you don’t mind sharing of course.”, Steve asked carefully.

“He wrote ‘It was nice catching up with you again, honestly this was the highlight of my week. I’m sorry I left without telling you, but you were still asleep and work called. Didn’t want to wake you up, we both know you need every minute of sleep you can get’ and he signed it with ‘Rhodey’ and a heart. And like now I’m confused like was this just friendly or not? And what do I do if it was not just friendly? This is all too much.”, Tony said quietly, seeming very unsure about all of it.

“Hey, hey Tony it’s gonna be alright I promise, we’re gonna help you, ok? No need to worry and get yourself all worked up.”, assured Thor, he was gonna try everything to try to make Tony feel better.

“Thank you guys, really, I don’t know what I would do without you.” Tony said earnestly, he truly meant it with all of his heart. These were the most important people in his life next to Rhodey of course.

“No worries, but now let’s talk about this. I honestly think that Rhodey likes you too. Like from all the things you’ve told us over time and now you two cuddling and the note, I really think he has feelings for you.”, Steve said with conviction in his voice, after all Tony has told them it there was just no other option.

“But what if he doesn’t? I don’t wanna lose him by telling him I have feelings for him and making him uncomfortable.”, worry laced Tonys voice as he said it.

“You two have been friends for so long, I’m sure he wouldn’t care. Also again, from what you’ve told us, he just doesn’t seem like the type to abandon somebody just because of feelings.”, Bucky threw in sincerely, having not said anything until then but he just couldn't stand the thought of Tony so worried about losing a person, he just needed to comfort him.  
“I know that he won’t just stop being my friend, no matter what happens, but like there still this stupid fear in the back of my mind. And I just can’t get over it, no matter how hard I try.” Tony said sadly, he seemed close to tears now.

“Tony, I know how you feel, I had this fear to, when you all left me and Thor alone when I first spoke and I knew how Thor felt. Like this shit is hard, getting over that fear costs a lot of courage, but it’ so worth it in the end. It really is, I promise.”, Bruce said sympathetically, having been in a comparable situation.

“No matter what you do, don’t push him away, like you don’t have to talk about your feelings if you don’t want to yet, but please don’t push him away because of your feelings because you’re gonna regret it so much. If you end up doing that you’ll just hurt you both, trust me.” Thor said, now clearly hinting at his own mistakes and begging Tony to not make the same mistakes as him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My [tumblr](www.fandom-wonderland.tumblr.com) and my [twitter](https://twitter.com/bvchananbarness?s=09) or buy me a coffee on [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/madita)


	7. 7

**Thor**  
hey, what are you doing at the moment?

 **Bruce**  
i should research for my project, but tbh i don’t really want to, so i’m just procrastinating  
what about you?

 **Thor**  
nothing much, i’m just on the discord with the others, you should come too if you are procrastinating anyway!

 **Bruce**  
i really want to, but i can’t i gotta finish my research first, sorry :(

 **Thor**  
hey, don’t apologize for focusing on your work, it’s fine!  
now don’t let me distract you further! the sooner you finish your research the sooner we can talk again!

 **Bruce**  
it’s just that i would rather talk to you than to do this, but i guess you’re right.  
talk to you later!

A few hours later Bruce had finally finished his research, at least to the point where he could justify a break and go onto the Discord again. As he joined the others were already into a deep conversation about Steve and Buckys shitty neighbor, as far as Bruce could tell. 

The first thing he heard after joining was “-just held hands.”, from an obviously angry Steve. Which was weird, because Steve normally didn’t get angry, he always tried to be calm and collected, no matter what.

“Hey, guys.”

“Bruce! There you are, we missed you!”, Tony exclaimed happily.

“I’m proud of you for finishing your research first! I’m glad you’re here now though.” Thor said, and he really did sound proud, Bruce didn’t think somebody could be proud of him doing the bare minimum for work but still here he is.

“I’m also glad I finally finished that, thank you for earlier, Thor. But anyway, what happened that got Steve so angry? I could only hear the last few words of his sentence, and wow, I never knew he could get so angry.” Bruce said curiously, because seriously what had to happen to get Steve this riled up.

“It’s just our neighbour again, but this time he was worse than ever before.” Bucky tried to explain the situation, but that explanation didn’t help much, sure it was better than nothing, but still it left room to be explained.

“I’m sorry to hear that, what has he done?”, Bruce tried to get more information, he really wanted to understand this situation, maybe he could help somehow.

“He was fucking homophobic, like me and Bucky were just walking up the stairs and holding hands and this asshole was walking down the stairs and when he came across us he bumped into Bucky with a disgusted look and then, when muttered the f-slur to himself, but loud enough so he knew we could still hear it.”, Steve said, clearly still angry, and for a good reason. Now Bruce understood why Steve was so angry, it really sucked that there were still were people like that out there. If that had happened to Bruce he wouldn’t have known what to do.

“I’m gonna find that fucking asshole and fucking beat him up, I swear to god.”, snarled Tony angrily, he absolutely hated homophobic people, or generally people who were against any minority, just as the others, but compared to the others he was much more aggressive towards them, he would punch every one of them and he would start with Steve and Buckys neighbour.

“Hey, hey Tony calm down, don’t get me wrong I would love to fight him too, but that’s not gonna help in this situation. Steve and Bucky still have to live next to him and beating him up would only make things worse. You can’t reason with people like that.”, Bruce tried to reason with Tony, which was almost impossible on other things, but as soon as Tony got this upset and angry about something there was almost not turning back.

“You know, normally I’m all for fighting homophobes, but this time I have to agree with Bruce, they still have to live next to each other, it wouldn’t be helping them to beat him up. Maybe if they move, but not now.”,Thor tried to emphasize just how much of a bad idea that was, in the hope to calm Tony down.

“Really Tony, I appreciate that you would fight him for us, and Steve would probably join you in a heartbeat, but Bruce and Thor are right for once, it wouldn’t help in our current situation.” 

“Logically I know it won’t help, but I just can’t fucking deal with all these homophobes anymore, there’s a point where it’s just too much to deal with and we’ve been past that point or a long time now. It’s just not acceptable to treat other human beings like that.”

“I wholeheartedly agree with you Tony, like I can’t believe there are still people like him out there, but sadly there’s nothing we can do about that.”, sighed Steve.

“This all just makes me fucking sad, and to be honest I don’t really wanna talk about that fucking guy anymore, so can we please change the subject? Anybody got something?”, Bucky mumbled, he sounded kind of tired to Bruce, but he wasn’t gonna mention it now, not when Bucky wanted to change the subject, besides Steve is right there with him, he would say something if it got bad, he always did.

“I kinda got something.”, Tony paused for whatever reason, probably dramatic effect if Bruce had to guess, “I am thinking about telling Rhodey, but like I don’t know ho-”, he was interrupted by Thor, who seemed kind of worried. What the hell had happened that got him worried so suddenly?

“I would love to stay and talk about Rhodey with you guys, but Loki just screamed my name, and it sounded like something fell down in the other room, so I gotta go and help him. Sorry! Talk to you all later!”, and with that Thor left the server.

“Okay… anyway as I was saying I don’t know how or when to tell him so any help would be appreciated.”, Tony says, but Bruce isn’t really listening anymore, he’s beginning to worry about Thor and by extension Loki. 

He could text him and ask what had happened, but should he really? Did that make him appear clingy? Thor had just left, but Bruce was also worried, he didn’t know what to do and also didn’t want to ask the others about it. So he decided to just give into his worry and text Thor.

 **Bruce**  
hey, is everything alright? 

He didn’t get an answer, which is fine, even expected, but still it only made Bruce worry more. He didn’t even see the message, what if something really bad had happened? He had to stop thinking about this, get distracted until Thor answered the message, it wouldn’t do any good to freak out now, without even knowing what had happened.

So he tuned back into the conversation again and apparently they had already started to develop a plan for Tony, “-restaurant, it would be romantic to tell him there, I think he would like that.”, he catched the end of Steves sentence.

“I’m really sorry but I didn’t hear everything Steve just said, but from what I heard I disagree with him. Don’t tell him in a restaurant. That’s a public setting, and it could get awkward very quickly. And also the perfect situation is already there right before us. Tony, you told us that you like to catch up over movies with a pizza, right?”

“Yes… I still don’t get what you mean though.”

“That’s because you all think to big, like yeah a restaurant is nice, but it’s much better date choice when you are already a couple. A movie night is much more personal and I think also more romantic. Like you can watch his favorite movie, and over the course of the movie you can build up the courage to tell him, and then after the movie is over you can tell him if you want to. And if you suddenly decided that you don’t want to, it’s also no big deal because a movie night between you is also a casual thing, so it won’t matter if you don’t tell him. But if you go to a restaurant and then decide to not tell him, it’s gonna be weird.”, Bruce explained his thoughts.

“You know, normally I side with Steve, but I gotta say Bruce made some very valid points and I agree with him. Just have your first real date at a restaurant, but tell him how you feel at a movie night.”, Bucky agreed.

“Yeah, you are right. I think I’m gonna ask him if he’s up for a movie night on friday and then I’m gonna tell him. Thank you guys so much, especially you Bruce! But I have to go now, because if I don’t finish this project until tomorrow Pepper will actually punch me, and to be honest I’m actually scared of seeing her angry. Bye!”

“Bye! Good luck with your plans!”, Bucky said

“And remember to fucking sleep Tony! I don’t care how important that project is, your health is more important!”, Steve tried to remind him, if he didn’t Tony would probably forget to sleep sometimes because he is always working on some kind of project.

“I hope everything works out!”, Bruce said kindly.

Bucky, Steve and Bruce continued to talk for a while, but Bruce was got more worried every minute that Thor didn’t answer him, it had been over an hour since his first text and he couldn’t take this much longer. He couldn’t even concentrate on the conversation anymore, so he might as well leave the server.

He tried sending another text, maybe he would see this one and answer him.

 **Bruce**  
are you okay? is loki okay? tbh i’m worried.

But Thor still didn’t reply. Bruce had to calm down somehow, so he had to try to distract himself from all this somehow.

Maybe he could make some tea and watch tv for a while, that would calm him down for sure. Just focus on something else.

After he had made his tea and sat down on the couch he turned on the tv, but after zapping through a few channels with nothing interesting on, he switched to Netflix. Maybe he could finally check out Brooklyn Nine-Nine, the show Bucky and Tony keep recommending to him.

It actually seemed like a good idea, and it would for sure calm him down. Or at least he hoped so.

As he was halfway through the third episode, his phone vibrated and Bruce grabbed it so fast that he almost dropped it while picking it up, all his worry came suddenly rushing back. 

**Thor**  
i’m so sorry for not responding to you earlier, I had to drive Loki to the hospital and didn’t check my phone 

**Bruce**  
what happened thor, is it something bad? is he gonna be okay?

 **Thor**  
loki is gonna be fine, he just fell from a ladder while trying to change a lightbulb and broke his wrist.

 **Bruce**  
okay, okay, that’s good.  
i mean not good, but good that it’s only his wrist.

 **Thor**  
i got what you meant :)  
i’m super sorry but i have to go again, loki needs me.  
we’ll talk more later, ok?

 **Bruce**  
go be there for loki, thor. i’ll still be here later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My [tumblr](www.fandom-wonderland.tumblr.com) and my [twitter](https://twitter.com/bvchananbarness?s=09) or buy me a coffee on [Ko-fi](https://ko-fi.com/madita)


End file.
